Archive for the ‘Catholic beliefs’

In this clip from Akeelah and the Bee, 11-year-old Akeelah is asked by her potential mentor, Dr. Larabee, to read a quote from Marianne Williamson that hangs on his wall. In part, it reads, “We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.” Larabee is trying to get Akeelah to recognize the God-given potential that lies within her, and to overcome the fear of being everything God has created her to be. Jesus When we think about Jesus, we sometimes forget that he used to be 11 years old. Jesus was not born knowing his full identity and mission as the Son of God. He was born as an ordinary child to ordinary parents in the first century—what the Bible identifies as “the time of King Herod the Great and the emperor Caesar Augustus.” His mother was a young girl, maybe a teenager, who was not married when she got pregnant. When he was still a young man, in his early 30s, he was executed by the Roman government, allegedly for crimes against the state. There is more to his biography, but the point is that there is a biography. Jesus was a flesh-and-blood human […]

On a muggy Thursday in June, I was setting up microphones and readying vessels and vestments for weekday Mass in the chapel at Notre Dame University. (To call it a “chapel” is an understatement. You can see a picture of it here.) It was the summer of my freshman year in college, and I’d been invited to a Study Week on Liturgy. Room, board, and admission to the study week in exchange for all the grunt work that needed doing. At 8:00 a.m., the musicians were in place, the presider and the servers were ready, and the readers were set to go. And then”¦nothing. Everything was beyond still. It was like the silence before the final, tie-breaking putt on the 18th hole at the Masters Golf Tournament. Then the music started. In slow motion at first, like the golf ball starting toward the hole with just enough movement. Then gathering speed, nearing the hole, faster now, closer, right to the lip and then hanging on the edge. Everyone holding their breath. Will it fall? Will it score? Will it win the day? The rest of the liturgy was on that edge. On the tip of wonder. Suspended in time. The […]

This story starts one night when I was working the closing shift at the local Dairy Queen. A group of kids pushed open the glass door, jangling the tin bell, just as I was about to flip on the neon “CLOSED” sign. I cursed under my breath as I crushed the mop head into the bucket wringer and squeezed the brown water out of its cotton threads. I washed my hands in the aluminum sink and dried them on the stained terrycloth towel that hung from my apron string. “Can I help you?” I asked. “Sure can!” said the blond girl, too perky by half. “I’d like a single chocolate dip!” I silently cursed again. “I’ll have to refill the soft-serve. I’ll take a few minutes.” “That’s okay,” the girl said. “We’re in no hurry, are we guys?” I took the rest of their orders before disappearing into the walk-in. A moment later, I was dragging a carton along the floor. I took a box cutter out of my back pocket, sliced off the top of the container, and hoisted the 20 pound plastic bag of white goo onto my shoulder. I undid the latch and lifted the lid of […]

Are you considering joining the Catholic Church? Or maybe you are already Catholic and you have questions about your faith. I was baptized as a Catholic when I was a baby. We went to Mass every Sunday, and when I was old enough, I went to Catholic grade school. When I was in high school, I considered leaving the church. The reason I wanted to leave was not because I didn’t have faith. Just the opposite. In high school, I discovered the whole point of having faith—knowing Jesus. I felt let down and a little angry at the Catholic institution for never having quite got that across to me. But I didn’t leave. I realized everything I needed to know had been right there all along. I’m not sure why it hadn’t clicked before. Maybe it was me. Maybe it was my teachers. Maybe it was the turbulence of the times (this was in the 1960s and 70s). Whatever the reason, in high school, I got it. A light clicked on. I was on the beginning of a path to understanding not “why” we have faith, but “who” we have faith in. What I want to share in a series […]